Last defendants cleared in QPR conspiracy case

The four remaining defendants accused of a plot to force at gunpoint a director of Queens Park Rangers to resign were cleared yesterday after the case against them was thrown out.

Andy Baker, 40, Aaron Lacey, 36, David Davenport, 38, and Michael Reynolds, 45, were originally on trial alongside three other men accused of an attack on Gianni Paladini, who is now chairman of the club, at QPR's ground last year.

But after a jury last week cleared QPR director David Morris of charges of conspiracy to blackmail, false imprisonment and possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, Judge Charles Byers yesterday instructed the jury to acquit the remaining four.

Italian-born tycoon and QPR shareholder Mr Paladini claimed he was forced to sign a resignation letter, handing over his club shares, during a match against Sheffield United on August 13 last year.

He alleged that he had been punched and threatened with a pistol after being ambushed by Mr Morris and six men in an extreme takeover bid at the club's Loftus Road ground in west London.

Mr Morris and co-defendant John McFarlane, 39, of Hayes, Middlesex, were cleared of the charges last week. A seventh defendant, Barry Powell, 34, of Greenford, Middlesex, was acquitted of all charges last month.

Yesterday the jury returned after a long weekend to continue their deliberations. But the judge told them that in the crown's case Mr Morris had been the "essential core" of the blackmail plot and without him the case could not stand.

Mr Lacey, of Watford, north London, Mr Baker, of North Petherton, Somerset, Mr Davenport, of Chesham, Buckinghamshire, and Mr Reynolds, of Wood Green, north London, smiled as the foreman of the jury formally returned not guilty verdicts against the four men on the three charges.

Explaining the decision to direct the jury to clear the men, Judge Byers said: "The crown has presented the case in a careful and precise manner and they have, from the outset, where they could, assigned to each defendant the precise role that they allege he played." Without Mr Morris, "we have no blackmail and no conspiracy".